The Portland Timbers have formally announced their invitation-only tryout camp which will take place on Saturday, March 8 at PGE Park. The camp is open to fans with invited players reporting for registration at 8.30 am and the camp scheduled to start at 9.30 am.

Coach Bobby Howe expects approximately 30 players from around the United States to participate in this year's camp, including, according to the third-year Timbers coach, a "larger-than-normal" group of goalkeepers as the team addresses the retirement of its regular 'keeper, Matt Napoleon.

"Over our two years, these camps have proved quite useful as we have signed three players to our roster out of them," said Howe. "Certainly this year, there is an opportunity for a quality goalkeeper to make his mark during the camp."

Eric Ozimek is currently a trialist for D.C. United and played in their scrimmage on Sunday against Lynn University.
[Note: Erik is under contract to the Timbers for the 2003 season]
[Note: Erik was among a group of players released from D.C.'s pre-season training on Friday]

The (by now traditional) Jim Taylor pre-season chat is available for your delight. Even though, as Jim puts it, the Timbers are "behind the eight ball" after all the uncertainty of the past months, he has some encouraging words about the upcoming season. He also thanks all the Timbers' fans who have sent messages of support over the winter.

Former Timbers favorite Chugger Adair has been named as assistant coach for the WUSA San Diego Spirit. Chugger has a history of coaching, has an 'A' coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation, was both the men’s and women’s assistant coach for Pacific University in Portland last year and assistant coach for University of San Diego men’s program from 1998-2000. He has also coached at the club level since 1994 with FC Portland and Del Mar Sharks.

Article from Trinidad about Brent Sancho's campaign for player's rights.

Sancho says that risk of victimisation is a lesser issue than the fight for better conditions for national footballers.
“While there is always room for something like that to affect my career or my chances of being on the national team, I see this as an opportunity to better the Trinidad and Tobago national football team. This is not about us fighting the Federation. It is about players wanting better working conditions,” Sancho says.

PFE have reached a "tentative" deal with lender TIAA-CREF and the City aimed at keeping soccer and baseball in Portland. PFE's investors and the NY based pension fund will both lose money and the stadium's owners will make lower payments to the City. The vote on the deal is scheduled for a Portland City Council work session on Thursday.

The deal promises to keep the teams in Portland, make up within a year nearly $1 million in past-due payments to the city, and avoid city ownership of the Beavers and the Timbers.

Under the agreement, Portland Family Entertainment would dissolve, costing $10 million to the 14 investors who were partners in the venture. A new group, Metropolitan Sports LLC, would take its place, with the 14-man investor roster pared to Crown Pacific president and CEO Peter Stott, auto dealer Scott Thomason and perhaps a few more.

The new group would buy out PFE's crippling $23 million to $25 million debt, which soared far above original projections. The price tag for the buyout is roughly $11 million, multiple sources said, a substantial loss for the group's lender, TIAA-CREF, a New York pension fund.

The city's share of the loss would require it to, among other things, freeze the stadium rent and tie it more to attendance, cut a ticket tax by 40 percent and eliminate the city's profit sharing. If the new group meets its obligations, attendance remains the same as last year and city expenses don't drop, the city estimates a loss of $150,000 to $300,000 this year.

The council also will consider whether to cut the city's costs to reduce potential losses, including free transit tickets to games and a living-wage stipend for stadium workers.

McKinley Tennyson was part of the San Jose Earthquakes side that opened the 2003 preseason Sunday afternoon with 4-0 exhibition win over Chinese First Division club Shanghai Shenhua FC. Tennyson scored the Quakes second goal 21 minutes into the second half after a well-weighted cross by first round draft pick Todd Dunivant. Tennyson beat his defender and powered a header past Wang.

[update] According to the Bay Area Mercury: (Frank) Yallop (Earthquakes' coach) said the Quakes are unlikely to sign forward McKinley Tennyson.

Timbers' Jake Sagare has signed a 1-month contract with Grimsby Town of the English Nationwide Div 1. Sagare has been on extended trial since September at the struggling club (they are currently in the relegation zone at the bottom of the 1st div).

Q - What about the Portland Timbers? I understand they still have big problems with the lease, which is over $600 grand in arrears.

Bob L. - I talked to the GM there. The operations side is not as issue, they are actually at a break even, their problem is, who ever did the deal for the Portland Family Entertainment, had done a deal with the city and it’s a deal that’s crippling them financially. They’ve gone to the city and said we need to renegotiate and they are saying no you can’t, you need to pay us the money you owe us. The Timbers are caught in the middle, caught in this battle between the city and the ownership of the club. Ideally what ever happens there, you’ve got 2 tenants. The baseball team is also caught up in that as well, both of those, who ever takes over the running of PFE are not going to want to lose 2 tenants. I’m disappointed because there’s a squabble taking place which makes it difficult for the club to operate because they haven’t been given the green light to sign players, so they are leaving it a bit late, it’s in abeyance but at least it’s not a situation where the club can’t look after itself. I talked to the GM last week, he’s frustrated to say the least. It’s still not resolved so.

As rumors build about an announcement this week on PFE's future, the Timbers and Beavers go about their pre-season business and the City of Portland continues to court MLB in a Joe Millionaire-esque manner, this from a City Press Release - MLB FAQ

Why can't MLB use PGE Park?PGE Park is a wonderful facility, however it does not have capacity necessary for Major League Baseball.

An MLB stadium must hold between 35,000 and 45,000 seats. PGE Park's capacity is just under 20,000. Adding the number of seats to make PGE Park viable for major league baseball would require demolition of the existing seating structures. In addition, the site is too small to accommodate any on-site parking making this site less desirable from revenue and operations viewpoints.

If Portland were to acquire an MLB team, PGE Park would likely be used as an interim stadium for the first two seasons.

What would happen to PGE Park if a new stadium were built?
PGE Park could continue to be available for Timbers soccer, PSU football, concerts, and community use.